Bishop Harold: Focus on the simple, spiritual things this Lent
Lent appears next week, as always sooner than we might wish. These forty days can be used for a whole range of things, from slimming to saving the planet – all good, but it is vital that we do not miss the main point. Lent is there as a time to take stock of and renew, our relationship with God. If that doesn’t happen, the key focus is lost.
Almost thirty years ago, I wrote a booklet called ‘Finding a Personal Rule of Life’, which had the aim of enabling ordinary Christians (including myself) to review where we had arrived on our spiritual journey, especially around the beginning of Lent, and to set goals for the next stage. What amazes me is that the booklet is still selling more than 28 years on, and I have just been asked to revise it for yet another reprint, as it is going out of stock. There are just a few copies available in the Good Book Shop so not many of you will be able to read it, but I would encourage everyone who follows Christ to sit down quietly before Lent begins next Wednesday, and reflect on the simple things of our spiritual lives, like:
How do I plan my prayer life?
How often do I read and study the bible?
Am I worshipping regularly and receiving the means of grace in Holy Communion?
Am I finding fellowship with other believers in depth?
Am I systematically giving to the work of God and the needs of others?
If the simple things are not right, then our spiritual lives will be shallow. Lent is an opportunity to re–focus. You might like to write down some goals and begin to put them into place from Ash Wednesday.
May I also invite those who feel it right, to join me in fasting on Ash Wednesday and every Friday during Lent, and praying that God would bless his Church with a faithfulness to the Gospel, renewed vision and life, and the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. If the church is not spiritually alive and a sign of the presence of Christ, then our vocation is lost and our existence is in vain.
God bless you powerfully this Lent.
+Harold
Down & Dromore